Keys Me -- the Meaning of Alyssa Alano's success

Alyssa Alano would have remained a minor curiosity in the dustbin of Pinoy cultural excreta, otherwise known as Kuya Germs's The Master Showman -- had it not been for YouTube and email.

Her quick rise to notorious fame demonstrates the power of the internet to distribute oddities that would otherwise not make it in traditional mass media.

I received an email about her feat (a link to a YouTube site with a plea saying "Pasikatin natin ang taong ito" -- "Let's make her famous") and in a couple of days, the video of Alano singing Kiss Me was a hit distributed mainly via email.

That's not the interesting part. What hits us in the face is how the internet reversed the flow of content: from email back to TV. The unfortunate event, which was a taping of a mall tour of The Master Showman, would have relegated Alano's performance to obscurity, had it not been for someone (with too much time in their hands) who actually took time to record the performance *and* add subtitles illustrating Alano's mangling of the hit by Sixpence None the Richer.

Within a week, Alano was famous in the websphere and this energy rippled back on TV, prompting spoofs and guestings of Alano (Update: now, Alano is a mainstay in Joey de Leon's show Teka Mona on ABC-5, doing what she does best: murdering the lyrics of English songs). Radio stations rushed back to their archives and started replaying Kiss Me. Clearly, the electromagnetic pulse caused by YouTube + email was too great to be ignored by traditional media and those who would not even dare to watch the Master Showman.

Alano may go back to obscurity but she gained fame beyond what Master Showman may have given her. Expect things like these to start becoming more popular in the future.

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(Also read The Long Tail)

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And here are the lyrics:

Keys Me...
Beat in the verdict
Valeey...
Nightlee...
V-side the green green grass
Swing Swing
Swing the spinny stef
You vur the shoes
And I will wear the dress


Ohhh...
Keys Me
V-neat d Milke Twalay
Leeeeep me
Al-out the moonlit floor
Leaf your open hand
Strike entebend
And make d parflays dance
Silvimousse is barkeley
So keys me

Keys Me
down by da flow can
3 how...
twin vee
of funee hungee tay
Bring bring
bing yo flower head
Will take dachay
Make on your father's melt


Ohhh...
Keys Me
V-neat d Milke Twalay
Tixt me
Al-out the moonlit floor
Leaf your open hand
Strike entebend
End make d parflays dance
Silvimousse is barkley
So keys me
(Repeat)